The Black Lance
by MidnightStriker
Summary: [FE9: POR]Marcia sets out to discover the real meaning behind the name of Jill's lance.
1. Chapter 1: A Question Arises

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem

_Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem. _

**Chapter 1: Questions and Answers**

"Awwww, chestnuts!" Marcia groaned, seeing her Iron Lance shatter in her hands. The fight against the ravens was tough, and Marcia's lance took more than its fair share of beatings. _I'm short on my dough, I can only buy one more…_Marcia thought. _So I'd better make the best of the best! _

She headed down towards the merchant's hold at the lower deck of the ship. The Greil Mercenaries had enlisted help from another merchant named Nasir. "Excuse me, sir?" Marcia called to Daniel, the twin who specialized in custom weapons. Daniel looked up from his bellows and walked over to Marcia. "May I help you?" he asked. "Well, you see, I'd like to make a custom weapon right now, and…" "Well, today's your unlucky day, I guess." Daniel interrupted. "Huh? Why?" Marcia asked.

"Another person came by here and asked for a custom weapon, so please return tomorrow." Daniel said. _Grrrr..._Marcia seethed. Chestnuts! That only left her with her Javelin. What if other surprise attacks came? She sat fuming in a corner. The sound of footsteps made both Marcia and Daniel look up.

"Is my lance ready yet, Sir Daniel?" a voice asked.

"Ah, Miss Jill, here it is." Daniel replied, carefully lifting an intricately done lance from the red-hot bellows. "I made it as lightweight as I could, with maximum durability and higher critical rate." Jill caressed the black lance. "Perfect. Thank you, Daniel." "Anytime, miss."

_Jill, eh? _Marcia thought. _Wasn't that the Daein wyvern rider who joined us this morning? _Jill proceeded to climb back up the hold. "Hey, hold-up sister!" Marcia called, following her. Jill raised an eyebrow. "What do you need?" she asked. "You-you've got a pretty nice weapon in your hands." "This cost me a fortune." Jill replied. "Well, its custom made, right?" Marcia persisted.

"Didn't you see me go down and have it crafted?"

"Well yeah, anyway…"

"Why don't you just spit out what you're trying to ask, Crimean!"

Marcia frowned. She wasn't going to be intimidated by this wyvern babe. "Well, OK, what is your weapons' name?" she asked curtly. "Ah…uhm…" now it was Jill's turn to stutter. "So? What is it?" Marcia persisted, sensing victory. "It's…Marianne." Jill mumbled, then suddenly lost all bravado and walked off.

"Marianne, huh? Where did she get such a name?" Marcia asked.

Dinnertime was the usual noisy patter of the soldiers. Oscar was fortunate to find several edible things in the ship's storage area. "This is great, Oscar! I almost forgot what real food tasted like!" Ike said. "Yeah, it's really good! Hey, save that last piece of bread for me, Rolf."

Mist took several servings of food and served it to a solitary figure in another room. "Why don't you want to eat with us, Jill?" she asked. "No one wants a Daein soldier in the dinner table. It spoils the meal." Jill replied. Mist gave Jill a pitying look, and left.

Jill picked at her food, and suddenly felt someone sit beside her. "You again." She said, emotionlessly. "Uhm, I just wanted to ask again…" Marcia said. "Didn't you eat your dinner yet." Jill broke in, but she couldn't mask the obvious note of happiness for a companion. "Well, uh, yeah! But I wasn't very hungry. Anyway, I came by to ask why did you think of a name for your lance 'Marianne'? I mean, it looks so tough, and why does it have a feminine name of 'Marianne'?"

Marcia inched closer, reasoning (and hoping) to herself that Jill wasn't going to bite her. "Well…" Jill began, taking a piece of bread. "…I was inspired by a winged fighter." "Oh, and her name was Marianne?" Marcia asked. "You sure are kind of inquisitive." Jill sighed. "Sorry, but I can't help asking why!" Marcia whined.

Jill faced Marcia and almost lost it. There was the cutest expression on her face. Puppy-dog pout. "Uhm, quit making that face, please…!" she said. "C'mon, Jill! Tell me about this Marianne person!" "I…I…I think I'll retire to my bunk now…" Jill said, her face chalky white. "See you around."

Marcia watched her go. "I'm gonna find out who she is, Jill! And don't you think I'd give up, either!"

TBC

_Sorry it's so short. Will Marcia find out the story behind Jill's black lance? Stay tuned for more!_


	2. Chapter 2: Entering Begnion

**Chapter 2: The Black Lance**

**Entering Begnion**

A few months later, Nasir's ship docks safely into Begnion's harbor. Ike's men breathed a sigh of relief, since they weren't used to the tossing and turning of Nasir's cargo boat. Both Ike and Nasir agreed to meet the apostle. But since Nasir's ship needed a little tuning, he got delayed. Ike decided to go ahead.

Begnion was unlike anything Ike's army had seen. Tall, spiraling towers reached toward the heavens, they were sure that the goddess would have seen it from on high. Richly decorated buildings stood on either side of wide streets, made of finely polished stone. Fountains dotted the city here and there, as if proudly showing the abundance of the empire.

Marcia shivered. Being back in this city wasn't at all a party. First off, she could run into any of the debtors her brother Makalov collected. Second, she could run into Sigrun, leader of the Begnion Pegasus Knights, or worse, Tanith, her commander! That could send her to an early grave, and she hadn't even found her brother yet! _Oh well…_she thought, _I guess I'll trust Ike on this one. He wouldn't just hand me over to that she-demon!! _Seeing Tanith's angry face in her mind's eye sent her the shivers despite the warm breeze.

The walk to the apostle was rather long, it took Ike and his army a half-day's walk from the docks. Unfortunately, when they arrived, the apostle wasn't ready to receive them yet. "That's disappointing." Ike said, voicing everyone's thoughts. "She must be busy with all those senators, Ike." Titania said. "Oh well, let's just find a place to rest while we wait. Hopefully she's ready tomorrow."

"I'm so sorry," Sigrun, captain of the Holy Guards, apologized. "But the apostle promised that you may stay in any room inside the cathedral's guest part. Please, make yourselves at home." "OK, thanks." Ike said. "You heard her, choose a room and make yourselves comfy while we wait for the apostle. Mist, come with me, I need to choose you a room closest to mine." "Ike! I'm not a little girl anymore!" Mist whimpered. He ignored her and took her hand to go room hopping.

The rest of the army disbanded, and each were thankful that the guest rooms were plentiful. "This looks like a good room." Oscar announced to his brothers. "It's got three beds." "That's good. I can't stand having this brat breathe my air." Boyd replied, gesturing to Rolf. Rolf stuck out his tongue at his older brother.

Ilyana poked around and found a room closest to the kitchen, and Soren discreetly chose one close to Ilyana's, slipping in at once. Marcia watched Jill from the corner of her eye. The Wyvern Rider hurriedly unpacked her things and quickly slipped out of the cathedral, probably to go off sight-seeing.

"I'm guessing that 'Marianne' is around here somewhere, hmmm?" Marcia said to herself. Marcia immediately chose a room closest to Jill and tossed her things in.

"Now, for some investigating." Marcia's first target was the desk, since Jill kept several worn notebooks and papers. As she was leafing through old bills and letters, a thick envelope fell out. "What do we have here?" Marcia mused out loud. The nosy knight opened it and saw a pile of small paintings¹. Whoever the artist was, he was really talented. The paintings showed Jill as a young girl, together with her father, Shiharam, a small boy with brown hair and an eyepatch…and another girl with purple hair. Marcia flipped through the pictures and found one with only Jill and that girl. Since this picture was more detailed, Marcia could see her face clearly.

As she studied the purple-haired girl's face, something struck her…that girl looked similar to her! Marcia dumbly continued flipping through the pictures and found one when the mysterious girl was playing with Jill and the young boy. "I wonder who she is." Marcia thought. She quickly fixed the pictures and envelope and placed it back to its proper place. As she was about to look at a notebook, she heard Kieran's voice.

"Calling the following soldiers!! Commander Ike says we have a mission!" Kieran announced. "Calling the following! Titania, Soren, Boyd, Mist, Jill, Marcia, Ilyana, Mia, Nepheenee…" the list went on, but all Marcia heard was her name and Jill's. _Chestnuts!! _She thought. _What a time to be called! And why does she have to fight in this battle too?_

Marcia quickly covered her tracks and bolted to her room. The very moment she closed her door she heard Jill's voice across the hall. "Thank goodness I made it. I had barely enough time to buy a pack of vulneraries." Marcia heard her mutter.

Marcia took three deep breaths, strapped on her armor, grabbed her lance and tried to look as normal as she could before heading out with the rest of the army. "Calling the following!! Please report for duty!" Kieran repeated. Marcia quickly ran to the assembly hall and listened the best she could to Ike, despite gasping and reveling at her close call. Jill was late as well, and fell in line beside Marcia. _Pegasus Ham! Why does she have to be late too?! And beside me!? _Marcia gritted her teeth. Jill was the last person she wanted to see!

Jill seemed to notice Marcia's apprehension and said, "Don't worry, I'm late too." Marcia forced a smile. Jill's sympathy made her feel even more rotten for snooping around Jill's room.

"OK, Captain Sigrun assigned us to take back some crates from several laguz smugglers." Ike said, seeing that his men were complete. "We'll have to confront them at the river early tomorrow morning, so get some sleep everyone! I'll see you in the morning."

They dispersed and went to their own rooms to make battle preparations.

**That night**, Marcia couldn't sleep. Rolling over on her stomach, she reached out for several scrolls next to her nightstand. She lit her torch and opened the first scroll. "Weapons Triangle…boring. As if Tanith hadn't drilled that to us for the umpteenth time." She tossed the scroll aside and opened the next one. "Trinity of Magic. Blah, blah, blah. As if I can read those junk." She sighed heavily and reached for the third scroll. "Must have inventory items—vulneraries, stat boosters…isn't there anything interesting to read?! I hope the last one's good." She unrolled the last scroll as she spoke. "Support conversations. Bingo! Never heard of this before."

Marcia shifted to a more comfortable position and read aloud. "'It has been proven that several status benefits can be made when the support conversation is activated. When the unit comes with three spaces of their support ally, they can receive boosts in their attack, defense, hit, avoid and criticals. These boosts depends on the unit's elemental affinity.'" Marcia paused. "Wow, I didn't know that before."

She paused and thought aloud, "Those would be a great benefit to any battle. But how to establish a support conversation?" As if to answer her question, the next section of the scroll held the bluntest piece of information she ever read. "Just talk to your potential ally. If they respond positively, your support is established. If not, try again. Maximum is three support boosts, and to get to the next support, fight side by side with your ally."

Marcia rolled up the scroll and closed her eyes with a satisfied smile on her face. Her next plan of action was to get to know Jill more through support conversations. Hopefully it would lead her closer to uncovering just who was that girl in the picture—and who was "Marianne".

--

_Sorry for the long update! I'm still alive, everyone! I just didn't know how to proceed. _

_Will Marcia's next plan of action work? Thank the goddess that Ike likes flying units. If not, one of them may have stayed in the cathedral! Stay tuned for the next chapter! Hopefully it won't take me as long to update._

¹_ those "small paintings" are like photographs, haha! Old time photographs. And nope, they're not portraits. _

_P.S.--I'm kind of basing my support conversation compatibility to Radiant Dawn's, meaning a unit can have a support with anyone, but it's not as impersonal as RD's. _


End file.
